Climate change impacts are battering Europe, from the scorching heat and crop-killing droughts that have dominated the news (except most media outlets in the United States) and, more recently, flash flooding. But there recently was an extremely uncommon event labeled as one of the “most significant meteorological events in Europe in modern history.” A 1,000-mile-long derecho with wrecking ball gusting winds of 140 mph caused damage from Corsica, France, Venice, Italy, and finally to Austria and Slovakia.
The expansive wind storm killed at least twelve and caused extensive property damage, cutting power to thousands.
The storms brought flash flooding to parts of Europe as temperatures dropped.
It appears that only the Washington Post’s Weather Gang has reported on the phenomena in the U.S.:
Experts said that the storm complex appeared to meet the pattern of a derecho, an exceptionally widespread and long-lived windstorm that is uncommon in this region. Coherent gusts traveled more than 600 miles from Corsica to the southern Czech Republic, hitting speeds up to 140 mph at times. The storms originated near the island of Mallorca before sweeping across the Mediterranean and into Europe, with a total track length of about 1,000 miles.
“I think it’s quite likely that the Mediterranean event indeed was a derecho,” said Johannes Dahl, co-founder of the European Storm Forecast Experiment (ESTOFEX). “I don’t think it’s common to have derecho-type events in this area (even less common than derechos in the rest of Europe).”
Derechos in Europe are rare, only occurring about once a year. Such convective wind storms that do occur are typically smaller and less intense than Thursday’s.
After various analyzes and verifications, the stormy episode which notably bereaved the #Corse on 08/18/2022, can be qualified as a "derecho". It is already one of the most significant meteorological events in Europe in modern history
In terms of electrical activity, in the space of ten hours, more than 160k flashes were detected by the Blitzortung network between #Corse and the Czech Republic. Lightning density loc. extreme. This is quite considerable for a single stormy system.
BBC reported on the flooding. Meanwhile, southern Italy is still amidst a deadly heatwave.
Extreme storms have become more frequent recently because of climate change.
Witnesses to the storms said they had been completely unexpected and no warning was given.
"We have never seen such huge storms as this, you would think it was a tropical storm," restaurant owner Cedric Boell told Reuters news agency.
On the French mainland, some southern areas were hit by power cuts and streets were flooded in the country's second city, Marseille.
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But in southern Italy, the heatwave continued, with temperatures of up to 40C recorded in Sicily.
And across the Mediterranean Sea in Algeria, at least 38 people have died in forest fires.
Many parts of Europe have seen weeks of exceptionally hot and dry weather.
Extreme weather events, including both heatwaves and storms, have become more intense and more frequent in recent years because of human-induced climate change.
The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.
London
Fire departments in Bavaria were kept busy overnight as storms and heavy rains prompted flash floods with drains and the dry earth unable to cope with the sudden precipitation.
Basements flooded, trees were blown over on public roads, and police reported several road traffic accidents related to aquaplaning (when there's so much water under a vehicle's tires that it severs the car's contact with the road and causes the driver to lose all or almost all control).
Firefighters reported that rainwater was running off fields and meadows towards streets, homes and basements.
The German Weather Service (DWD) had issued storm warnings for much of the country overnight.
It said on Saturday that the extent of the damage overnight had been less serious than feared, but kept its highest storm warning level in place for the southeasternmost tip of Bavaria for Saturday.
Bavaria's flooding alert service said that streams and rivers that had been at dangerously low levels were filling up rapidly as water ran off the soil and into the tributaries. However, it said that "in mid-sized and larger rivers" that were more accurately monitored, "the quantities of rain have so far only led to a few isolated cases of burst banks."
It warned, however, that the unusual dry-then-wet weather would make accurate flood predictions and warnings extremely difficult.
Level 1 storm warnings, on a scale going up to four, are in place for virtually all of Germany on Saturday, with level 2, 3 or 4 warnings in parts of eastern and southern Bavaria.
Nearly 10 million people across Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas are under flood watches Saturday, including Phoenix, Albuquerque and El Paso.
“The stage is set for southern Arizona and New Mexico to potentially receive prolific rainfall and widespread flash flooding today,” as a low-pressure system brings moist, tropical air to the Southwest in the form of heavy rain and thunderstorms to add to the already active monsoon season across the region, the Weather Prediction Center said early Saturday morning.
Widespread rainfall totals of 2 to 3 inches, with locally higher totals of 5 to 7 inches, are forecast across the region – leading the WPC to issue a level 3 out of 4 “moderate” risk for excessive rainfall ahead of the wet forecast. That could mean widespread flash flooding across the Southwest.